Climbing is a way to get a leg up on fitness and fun

Stephanie Pound, Sr Director of Bay Area & Marketing at Planet Granite, demonstrates her climbing technique on the system board at the San Francisco location in the Presidio on Monday, Dec 28, 2015.

Stephanie Pound, Sr Director of Bay Area & Marketing at Planet...

Not everybody understands the passion others have for climbing gyms or rock climbing.

Stephanie Pound, a self-described non-athletic bookworm from Cal, said she didn’t get it herself at first.

“When I was introduced to it, I was not an athletic person,” Pound said. “I was working at REI in Berkeley and my brother took me to Indian Rock (in the Berkeley hills) for the first time. We started going to the climbing gym and I fell in love with climbing.”

By Tom Stienstra

At Planet Granite in the Presidio this week, Pound, who now oversees the Planet Granite gyms around the Bay Area, showed how the place was alive with energy. Approximately 150 climbers were working their way up different walls and solving “boulder problems.”

In the past 10 years, climbing has risen from a cult sport to near mainstream with more than 20 climbing gyms in the Bay Area that are open as late as 11 p.m.

Those who take part don’t always feel a need to explain their passion; besides, they say, the nonbelievers wouldn’t understand anyway. Pound, once a nonbeliever herself, can bridge that divide.

“I would encourage people to try it,” Pound said. “Some people are afraid of heights; others might not feel they’re strong enough.

“To address fear of heights,we have gear in place, where you’re tied in with a rope so you’re affixed to the wall, so there’s a built-in safety net for you. In terms of being strong enough, the biggest misconception about climbing is that you need brute strength. You don’t. It’s more about your feet and your leg strength, and most of us have that.

“We see people of all different ages and sizes. You can be 3 years old or 70 years old and you can find a rock that fits you.”

The rewards, climbers say, are many:

Mental challenge: At the start of each climb, whether in a gym or on a rock, you must pick a climbing “line” where you envision your route and calculate each inch as you move up. “Life by the inch,” the saying goes, “is a cinch.” This rewards the ability to envision routes, and over time, you will gain knowledge and experience. “When I was 24, I tried and failed to climb the Nose of El Cap(itan),” said Hans Florine, the world-renowned speed climber. “Then, one day short of my 48th birthday, I set the (speed) record (for the Nose). What does that tell you? It tells you that the sport rewards experience and knowledge.”

Physical challenge: Some people think they aren’t strong enough to climb because they have difficulty doing pull-ups. For “slab routes,” you do not use your arms to pull yourself up, but instead position your feet in key footholds and leverage yourself up with your legs. Brute arm strength has nothing to do with it.

It stays new: Planet Granite in San Francisco has 28,500 square feet of climbing area with more than 200 climbing routes and more than 200 boulder problems. “We change our routes every seven to nine weeks, so you’re constantly getting new stuff,” Pound said. “It’s not repetitious.”

Social network: It doesn’t take long before you are welcomed into the climbing community. “You’re surrounded by community,” Pound said. “We’ve seen countless people, myself included, where climbing has changed lives. It becomes a part of what you do, your vacations, your after-hours activities, your circle of friends. My husband (Matthew Pound) and I met climbing.”

Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

Reagan Lisle, 6, recieves some guidance from her father Jeff Lisle during her climb at Planet Granite in San Francisco, Calif on Monday, Dec 28, 2015.

Reagan Lisle, 6, recieves some guidance from her father Jeff Lisle...

The Bay Area has several locations that have been the training grounds and launch points for dozens of world-class rock-climbers: Indian Rock and other sandstone crags in the Berkeley hills, the Rock City complex at the foot of Mount Diablo near South Gate, and Goat Rock at Castle Rock State Park on Skyline above Los Gatos.

Gyms offer advantages you can’t find at the outdoor sites: good weather, and a support network is available. You can climb at night, too.

Cody Hanson, 24, of San Francisco, said he started climbing at Planet Granite four years ago and found that the sport resonates with him. “It started when I was just looking for something to do, a hobby,” Hanson said. “I get a lot of enjoyment and fun out of it.”

After the initial euphoria that comes when you discover you can climb something that at first appeared impossible, the next step is finding a tougher challenge, Pound said.

“There’s always a way to get better; there’s always the next level. I climb outside almost every weekend, but inside at the gym, it’s accessible, easy, and you see all your new friends and laugh off the week.”

An all-day day pass for most climbing gyms is in the $20 range, with discounts for morning hours or for students. Memberships generally cost about $70 to $80 per month.

In addition to climbing, most have fitness and yoga programs. In San Francisco, Planet Granite covers the costs and runs a program for at-risk youth, in which the participants must learn trust and communication to make it up a wall.

Florine, who runs a climbing gym in the East Bay, uses the walls to train.

“The world slows down,” Florine said. “When I first started, it hit me one day that I could do it. I had the ability to go up things that look impossible.”